


Reinforcement

by a_miiraculer, clairelutra (exosolarmoon)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Possession, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 22:38:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12492388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_miiraculer/pseuds/a_miiraculer, https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: In which Ladybeetle gets there about 10 minutes earlier.





	Reinforcement

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ash_Boss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ash_Boss/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Breaking Point](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5760523) by [Ash_Boss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ash_Boss/pseuds/Ash_Boss). 



> hello this is a special kind of shitty and i am so, so, so sorry. it was an honor to do this for you, and i hope you manage to find some enjoyment from it anyway.

Chat Noir's overwhelming headache was just starting to take the shape of words when she realized she wasn't alone. She couldn't tell who it was through the fog, but the way their steps crunched across the roof tile felt... familiar somehow.

She didn't have it in her to react to them.

Thankfully, she didn't need to. The steps materialized in the form of Ladybeetle's sturdy black boots coming to a stop at the edge of the roof.

"Chat?" Ladybeetle said, his voice pitched to be soft, but still gratingly loud across the murky whispers of _not enough, never enough, come to me, child, and i will make certain that you are enough—_

"Hm?" Chat asked, and then flinched, pain flaring in the base of her skull at the sound of her own voice.

"You... okay?"

Chat started to nod, but the gesture got lost somewhere between the thought and the action, and ended up shaking her head instead.

( _they don't understand you, they don't need you, i need you, join me, and bring me the—_ )

"...Do you want to talk about it?" Ladybeetle asked, in that very specific shade of awkwardness that Chat had come to identify as 'boys don't do feelings, but this one is willing to try.'

Chat hiccuped a giggle, shockwave of pain ricocheting from her throat to her chest to her limbs and back again. "M-maybe."

( _you're so brave, little kitten, so pretty, so good, so earnest, just bring me the miraculous and i'll—_ )

The roof tiles scraped as Ladybeetle plopped himself down beside her, thoughtless and real and gracelessly graceful. "What's up?"

"...I gained weight."

Whatever Ladybeetle had been expecting her to say, it obviously wasn't that. He cocked his head at her, nonplussed, and then pointed his eyes up at the midnight sky in thought.

"That's... bad?" he guessed.

"It... it wasn't much," Chat defended feebly, curling around her traitorous stomach, "just two kilos, but... people noticed."

"That you're two kilos softer to hug?"

A laugh jolted out of Chat, another wave of pain pulled in its wake. At any other time, she would've followed that up with, _wanna come over here and find out?_ but she didn't think she could take a rejection here, so she swallowed it back down.

( _your miraculous, my dear, we could make such a lovely team, they'd never degrade you like that again—_ )

"I'm... I'm a model, you know," was what she ended up saying instead, her voice rasping. "Models can't... do that. _Be_ that."

Ladybeetle whistled long and low. "I'm impressed."

Chat's breath caught in her throat, heart giving an unsteady _thump._ "I-impressed?"

The skin under the edge of his mask darkened—or maybe that was just Chat's imagination. "W-well, yeah. Who knew you could sit still that long?"

Chat's breath left her in a rush, her disappointment sharpened by the cloud of general misery she still swam in.

"Bet you're surprised I'm pretty enough, too," she mumbled. The joke fell latter and harsher than she intended it, but it was merely the latest in a long string of failures today, and not a particularly noteworthy one, besides.

"Mm, not really?" said Ladybeetle, casual as you please, apparently unaware of the way his partner's heart had just up and _stopped._ "You've always been pretty enough. I just figured you were dodging scouts instead of... well. Employed."

"...O-oh."

Seconds trickled between them, stars hanging low in the sky her headache was knocked loose by the fluttering in her chest and the heat in her face, losing its form and then its words, falling back behind her eyes.

Then Ladybeetle asked, "Is that really what you were upset about?" and reality rushed back in, nipping at her heels.

"...My mother noticed."

"...Ah."

She knew he didn't really understand—she'd never given him the context for that particular relationship—but his voice said he understood the gravity of it, if not the specifics.

"I-I've just..." She swallowed hard, and forced her next words out in a shameful rush; "I'm so hungry from all the fighting I forgot to be careful, a-and... I'm paying for it, I guess."

Ladybeetle snapped upright, his brow furrowing as he opened his mouth, and then... paused. Very carefully, he posited, "I think you're _supposed_ to eat when you're hungry. That's how hunger works."

"For people who don't want to look like supermodels, sure." She made a weak little noise in the back of her throat, feeling smaller than ever. "God forbid I eat what I want and get _fat_. How could anyone _love me_ if I was _fat?"_

( _you wouldn't have to worry about that with me, child, just bring me the miraculous and—_ )

Ladybeetle's open palm landed on top of her head and gave her a little jostling. "Easier, once they're not worried about you _starving to death."_

"Would you kiss me if I was fat?"

The joke slipped out of her unbidden, and she instantly regretted it. There was no good answer to that question, and for her to just throw it out like _that..._ "Sorry, that was—"

Ladybeetle dug his fingers into her fluff and slid them through it, cupping the back of her head. When she looked at him, he met her gaze with a long, calculating stare. The headache was starting to fade.

"I would," he confirmed, and then, while she was still blinking over that, he added, "I'd kiss you if you weren't, too."

"Oh," Chat said, flummoxed.

She hadn't been expecting that.

His eyes flicked down to her lips, the pad of his thumb following after a second. "I don't... I didn't... know. If I kissed you, would you... want that?"

The headache took a hit as her heart leaped in her chest. "Y-yeah."

(A distant snarl echoed in her ears, almost inaudible and _definitely_ much less important than the look Ladybeetle was giving her mouth.)

For all the time she'd spent wishing and imagining it, Chat's first kiss was as perfect as it was unceremonious. Ladybeetle tilted her head and brushed his lips over hers, movie scene-perfect, and then pulled back to check on her.

Chat was pretty sure her face was about to roast right off.

She wasn't sure what he got from her expression, but it made him _smirk_ , so, you know.

"Good?" he guessed, smug enough that she knew there was no question in his mind about it.

"Mm... I don't know," she demurred, casting her gaze aside and grinning coyly. "I think so, but you should kiss me again just to make sure."

"Sure thing, kitty," he said, low and purring, and when he kissed her again, the rest of her fog broke with a _snap_.

Neither of them saw the akuma leave. Kissing was incredibly distracting.

(And if there was a black butterfly nesting in her mother's hair at breakfast the next morning, well. Gabrielle Agreste _was_ known for her new and daring fashion moves. Adrienne was happy to see her taking inspiration from the bleakest of places.)


End file.
